JANSENISM. The Augustinus, seu doctrina S. Augustini de humanae naturae sanitate, aegritudine, et medicina, adversus Pelagianos et Massilienses of Jansen, published in 1640, is a work in three folio volumes. The first of these is devoted to an historical exposition of the Pelagian and Massilian (semi-Pelagian) heresies; the second sets forth the Augustinian doctrine as to the state of innocence and the fallen state; while the third treats, in ten books, of the grace of Christ the Saviour. The sting of the work is to be found mainly in the epilogue, which draws a parallel, in various particulars, between the errors of the Massilians and those “recentiorum quorundam,” the Jesuits being referred to. Its bearing upon previous controversy had become well known long before its publication; and while it was still in the press at Louvain strenuous efforts were made by the Jesuit party there, through the papal internuncio, to induce the university to prohibit its appearance, on the ground that various popes had forbidden that anything should be written on the delicate subject of the grace of God without express papal permission. These efforts not only failed to attain their immediate object, but had the effect of greatly stimulating public interest in the Augustinus when it appeared; and as soon as it arrived in Paris it was forthwith reprinted with the written approval of six of the most eminent doctors of the faculty of theology there. In 1641 the reading of the book, thus flung into the arena of theological controversy and ecclesiastical intrigue, was prohibited by the Inquisition; no opinion, however, was pronounced as to its doctrine, and the counter-agitation of the Jesuits in relation to it was condemned as inconsistent with the spirit of the papal injunctions already ...